The East Asia Summit takes place in a shifting landscape. Tensions are brewing in the South and East China seas, the global economy is growing only slowly, and major trade accords face an uncertain future.

Yet few expect solutions from Asia-Pacific leaders gathering at the EAS. One major reason is that the group is a creature of ASEAN, which is dedicated to process, not results. [READ MORE]

The ten Southeast Asian nations making up ASEAN will also hold their summit in Vientiane, almost as a sideshow alongside the EAS. Yet they are there because ASEAN is at the centre of Asian regionalism and regional cooperation.

The ASEAN grouping celebrates its 50th anniversary next year and continues to defy the odds on falling apart. [READ MORE]

The administration will portray this as a victory lap, asserting that Obama is America’s first “Pacific president” (in fact, Richard Nixon made a similar claim in 1969, while William H. Taft, Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy, and George H.W. Bush also spent formative years in the region).

The administration will also claim credit for a wave of initiatives that actually started in the George W. Bush administration (the G-20, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the strategic partnership with India, the Pacific Command force posture changes, etc.). [READ MORE]

China’s actions in the South China Sea are increasingly militaristic. Due to Vietnam’s lack of strong treaty allies, the country is particularly vulnerable compared to its peers.

In response to Vietnam’s deteriorating security situation, it is likely to choose one of three strategies: 1) continue the current strategy of hedging between the U.S., China and Russia; 2) ally with the U.S. against China; or 3) develop Vietnam’s military capabilities, including a potential nuclear deterrent. [READ MORE]

China’s increasing militarization and persistent maritime claims against Vietnam threaten not only that country, but the international rule-based system of international law developed over the last century.

The League of Nations, founded in 1919, and the United Nations, founded in 1945, were meant to be rule-based systems to decrease the risk of military conflict. [READ MORE]

HANOI • France and other countries should help to keep the peace in the disputed South China Sea, Vietnam's President said yesterday, as unease grows over China's increasingly muscular approach in the key waterway.

China claims most of the sea where it has built up reefs capable of hosting military equipment, sparking ire from competing claimants, including Vietnam. [READ MORE]

The secretive communist government of Laos, a country with a population of less than 7 million, rarely causes a ripple on the diplomatic circuit. And yet its sleepy capital will spring to life next week when global leaders arrive for an Asian summit.

Barack Obama will be among them, making the last push of his presidency to rebalance Washington's foreign policy toward Asia, a strategy widely seen as a response to China's economic and military muscle-flexing across the region. [READ MORE]

(Bloomberg) — The spyware used in cyber attacks on Vietnam’s major airports and national carrier last month is now suspected of having bombarded many more official sites, amid tensions with China over territory in the disputed South China Sea.

A malicious code disguised as anti-virus software found lurking in everything from government offices to banks, major companies and universities was the same as that used in “politically-colored” attacks on two of the country’s biggest airports and Vietnam Airlines, said Ngo Tuan Anh, vice chairman of Hanoi-based network security company Bkav Corp. [READ MORE]

The countries of Southeast Asia have long sought progress toward a position of greater institutional unity in addressing regional security concerns.

In 2009, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed on a Political-Security Community Blueprint, which stated that member states, “regard their security as fundamentally linked to one another, bound by geographical location, common vision, and objectives.” [READ MORE]